Sentiment is so severely negative in North American markets and I think the effects of European/Asian markets falling much further is still a large factor not yet fully priced into the picture.

Not having the ability to short some of these financial stocks has almost undeniably caused a stiffer and quicker decline in the wider markets as the ability to play both sides of the markets with hedges has been reduced and the effects of rallies due to short covering has been severely reduced... hence the very sharp and prolonged declines... further evidence of the ignorant people in charge of changing and manipulating market rules on a whim that has obvious adverse effects on the markets.

Eventually we will get a dead cat bounce/short covering rally(once shorting is a larger part of the picture again)... but the underlying sentiment and fundamentals of this global financial crisis are hard to ignore. A series of bubbles across many asset classes are bursting worldwide and this credit crisis will not go away anytime soon as long as a wide range of asset values including real estate continue to decline and feed off each other in a Catch-22 type scenario.

Eventually fundamentals and oversold assets will draw buyers who have kept their cash on the sidelines back into the marketplace and we will see some bargain-hunting rallies but as to what levels and when those rallies take place is anybodies guess.

I expect we may see declines far exceeding the lows of the 2002/2003 bear market levels as this bubble involves many more asset classes than the previous internet craze. This time "real" companies... some that have been around for over 100 years are being obliterated and almost every individual is being hit from Wallstreet to mainstreet in basically every region of the world.

The very stability of the financial system is at risk and it will take patience and fortitude to hold faith that world economies can and will rebound even as we watch weekly declines of 10-20% across the world.

Now do believe me? The 1000 point swing today that I wrote about two days ago, might have been the bear rally since events are compressed in time as the market moves much faster than it has in history going up or down. The Dow went down nearly 2,400 points, or 22.1 percent over eight sessions. I think most of us thought the world was ending when we went down 700 points this morning which was at the bottom a 3000 point decline before it went up 300 points. We must all be stunned and exhausted because I am. The world has never seen this big a move in such a short time and that includes the depression. Where do we go from here? Some are calling this the bottom. Barring some government program impacting the world financial problems, it looks like we will go lower.

My bear etf's were up 50% in four days, but lost some of that by the end of the day. I looked at the profit at the 700 point bottom this morning and didn't sell. I kept thinking there is nothing in my experience of investing to help me because all these events have no precedent. I got greedy, fearful for myself that the world was rushing into a depression, wondering if I should buy more etf's to make more money, I watched down 500, down 600, down 700. What is happening to us? So I did nothing and watched as it moved 1000 points higher in a short time. Should I buy more etf's while the price is down or is this the beginning of the recovery? You know the rest because it went down 400 points from there. Too much, too fast, never happened before so I just watched. This is history and I am exhausted.

May be time to review bear etf's as the trend is down again. I am up 11% for today at 11 eastern and greedy for more. I'm in the top five performing etf's for the month. See my instructions for sorting at the beginning of this thread.

Moxie:

No. I own the following bear etf's and was up 20% today: aga, smn, sdk, sij, scc, and, sjl. I got crushed on Monday's big gain and was pissed that I didn't take profit last week so I won't let this go down the drain this time. I will hold until we have a bear rally.

zigzagman:

I believe I speak for most readers of this forum to tell you the incredible contribution you make for the benefit of all of us is much appreciated. Your eloquence and easy to read format makes a complicated subject easier to understand. Thank you and I hope you will continue to help all of us to make the right investment decisions far into the future.

Based on your writings and my trigger finger shaking because I agree with your opinion, I will probably add to my bear etf's. Keep up the great work on keeping us informed.